Pictured: Center with award is Courtney Plotner with members of the Together SC Awards Committee during the 2017 Nonprofit Summit in Columbia.

"We could not be more excited and honored to win this award," said Plotner when informed about being selected. "The mentors were amazing and the process itself was so rewarding."

"It is so incredible to be honored for doing the work we love."

The Association for the Blind & Visually Impaired Charleston is celebrating its 80th year as an organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for people who are visually impaired by providing services, programs and advocacy to promote independence and self-sufficiency as well as help individuals’ participate fully in their communities. Their programs provide vision clinics for children in Title-I schools and vision clinics for uninsured or underinsured adults in the Charleston Tri-County area.

“We had several very strong candidates, but what stood out to the committee was the understanding that excellence is a continuous process with the Association for the Blind,” said Derek Lewis, Together SC board member. Lewis serves as the award committee chair and is the executive director of Greenville First Steps whose organization received the award in 2014.

“There were so many places where the Association for the Blind excels — governance, clearly defining the roles of staff and board, responsible fundraising best practices — but their commitment to consistently seek ways to continually improve stood out to our team.”

Together SC goes through an intensive selection process to identify a member who demonstrates nonprofit excellence within the state. The recipient is selected by a committee and announced during the annual gathering each year in front of hundreds of nonprofit peers.

During our 2016 Nonprofit Summit, we presented several distinction awards and participated in the presentation of Gene Cochrane, president of The Duke Endowment, receiving the state's highest civilian honor - The Order of the Palmetto. It has been such an incredible honor to share in the excitement with these incredible individuals and organizations.